Queen In Black #5 – Everybody Who’s Anybody Is Here

Plan B it is! A chain of powerful teleporters brought Hela and Knull face to face. The plan was to let them battle to the death and defeat the one left standing. The problem is that the one left standing was a combination of both. Meanwhile, Reed Richards concocted a plan to allow MJ and Dylan Brock to bond with the Venom symbiote at the same time. Like most of Reed’s plans, it went off the rails, and the entire population was simultaneously bonded with Venom, becoming Venomworld. As Knull, the new King of All, approaches, will Venomworld be powerful enough to stand against him?

This review is brought to you by Nerd Initiative’s Eda and Shawn!

Creative Team

Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Paco Medina and Iban Coello
Color Artist: Guru-eFX
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover Artist: Ryan Stegman
Cover Color Artist: Frank Martin

Writing

Eda: What an absolutely wild ride this event has been. From Hela becoming the titular Queen in Black to what transpires here, Al Ewing and the other writers delivered consistently. With how this ended, I was left with so many questions, the biggest one being how this will affect symbiotes going forward. However, that’s presumably for another writer to tackle at another time, as is the nature of comics.

As for the pacing in this final issue, I felt Ewing kept things fairly steady. While there wasn’t much in the way of action giving the comic momentum, the dialogue pushed things along nicely and gave everything this intense air of drama. I’m now very interested to see what the fallout of this event looks like, given everything that was set up.

Shawn: The Queen in Black has fallen. The Throne is restored, but to whom? Well, you will just have to pick up Queen in Black #5 to see. This was an outstanding final issue. With the final issue in hand, I have to say that I enjoyed Ewing’s work on this Queen in Black series more than I enjoyed the previous King in Black. While this event may not have Earth-shattering implications, Ewing clearly intends for it to have significant implications for the symbiotes moving forward. That task will be left by Ewing to Charles Soule beginning with Venom #1.

This issue felt a little more connected. With the Venomworld hivemind, there was no need for Ewing’s previous approach of jumping back and forth across the battlefronts. It allowed Ewing to tie up the story arc nicely, while also leaving a fresh sandbox for new writers to play in. This finale eschewed the traditional major battle that we often see in such events in favor of a more cerebral ending that works well.

Art

Eda:With what they’re able to do in this issue, the team of Coello, Medina and Guru-eFX absolutely brought it. While half of the issue takes place in this almost grey void looking space, the other half takes place in, well, space! The space scenes continue to be some of the best I’ve ever seen drawn and colored, being this perfect blend of mystical and scientific. When it comes to the other half, I particularly love the character designs. The stand-out’s to me are the sheer scale of Knull and the overall flawless design of Emma Frost (I’m admittedly being a tad biased here but I digress). Lastly, when it comes to the lettering, Cowles really put in the work! The distinct dialogue bubbles not only make it easy to follow, but give each character their own unique voice. The description boxes also make it incredibly easy to differentiate both where and when the different parts of the story are taking place.

Shawn: Artistically, this was the best issue yet of the series. Paco Medina, Iban Coello, and Guru-eFX combined to create some really memorable art. I loved the visuals of some of our heroes stripped of their normal colors rendered down to a clean black, white, and gray palette. Of course thanks to the outstanding line work of Medina and Coello, you instantly recognize your favorite hero. With the limited action in this issue, it was really up to Medina and Coello to provide a steady hand on the line work and they nailed it.

Guru-eFX as mentioned earlier just did a killer job with the color stripped versions of our heroes. At the same time the shine of Knull was perfectly captured. The colors and definition made Venomworld feel like a living breathing character. Clayton Cowles masterfully moved everything through the issue. The variation in the character boxes made the issue move forward and easy to follow with such a heavy narrative focus.

Final Thoughts

Eda: 10/10.“Queen in Black #5” rounds out a fantastic, exciting event from Ewing and his team. From the first issue to the last, this was an absolutely wild ride that Marvel readers should experience for themselves. Congratulations to everyone involved for a stellar run!

Shawn: 10/10. Long May They Reign! Queen in Black #5 is everything you would want to wrap up an event like this. The creative team worked effortlessly, hand in hand, to deliver a perfect smaller-scale event for Marvel Comics.

Overall Grade: 10/10

What did you think of the issue? Let us know in the comments